John O’Connor – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 469: John O’Connor on the Meaning of Bigfoot

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever!

A mostly accurate transcript for Ep. 469¹

“I don’t feel envy. I don’t think. Maybe in some deeper and maybe even more troubling psychological level. I do feel competition with people, competition over resources, trying to claim certain ideas, stake a claim to certain ideas before other people can, especially when you’re working with a subject that’s in the public sphere. You don’t have any personal, any real wider claim to something than somebody else. It can be nerve wracking.” — John O’Connor, from Ep. 469

Episode 179: John O’Connor — Finding Your Donkey

By Brendan O’Meara

John O’Connor is here to talk about his essay “Everything Gets Worse,” Issue 32 of Creative Nonfiction’s True Story.

In this episode we talk about the genesis of this essay, what it says about him and finding a donkey for your story.

Towards the end, he also brings up Jenny Odell and wanting to read her book How to Do Nothing. You can listen to my conversation with Jenny if you’d like. No presh. You might also like Eric Ducker, who wrote a great profile on Jenny for The Ringer.

Support the show by linking up to it on your social platforms, engaging with the show on Twitter, IG or Facebook, and consider leaving a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. We’re real close to 100. Let’s get there and see what happens.

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